Writing ought either to be the manufacture of stories for which there is a market demand — a business as safe and commendable as making soap or breakfast foods — or it should be an art, which is always a search for something for which there is no market demand, something new and untried, where the values are intrinsic and have nothing to do with standardized values. — Willa Cather
Lots of people think authors should not only create the content but run their own publicity and marketing machines. We should blog. We should keep our websites updated. We should pop into every bookshop in town on a regular basis just to say Hi and sign things. We should do interviews on radio, tv, the web; we should write op-eds and do speaking engagements. We should keep email lists and send out regular newsletters. We should make YouTube videos and book trailers and in our spare time record readings on our laptops. Oh, and we should have constantly updated photos in b&w, colour, formal, candid, full-length and headshots. We should not be wearing the same clothes in each shot; the clothes we wear must be lovely; our haircuts have to be sharp. And heaven forbid we should forget to get that manicure or eyebrow wax. (This is me giggling…)
All this presupposes that we’re young, fit and energetic; that we are very well paid by our publishers so that we don’t have to have a J.O.B. (or we have trust funds); that we write the kind of books that don’t require immersion and total focus.
I’m forty-seven. A midlist author. I have MS. I’m still expected to do the impossible, that is, do my publisher’s job, while still creating all the content, finding the readers, and getting only 10% of the list price.
Well, finally, I got tired of it, and I quit. Oh, I haven’t stopped writing–far from it–but I think I’m done with the prevailing publishing model. I’m done with being expected to produce art and then being treated like a commodity. Here’s a quote from a post I wrote last month:
Sometimes I can have a good writing day yet not write much. This is happening more than usual at the moment, and it’s related to writing historical fiction. Writing mainstream fiction is easy–everyone knows what a bed is like, what people eat and wear, how things work. For the seventh century–unlike, say, Regency England (the rake, the dandy, the ball, dance cards), or WWII (the Blitz, rationing, grey skies filled with barrage balloons, weak tea)–there are no handy plug-ins. I have to invent everything, every single thing, from scratch. If Hild walks into the dairy, what does it look like? (Would there be a dairy? Cows were most likely milked in the field, sheep in a pen.) How do you make cheese when there is no stainless steel? What do you store the milk in with no glass, no refrigeration? (You don’t; you turn it into cheese and butter and whey.) How many women/girls does it take to milk how many cows and sheep? What are the buckets made of? (Sycamore, because it doesn’t leave a nasty aftertaste in the milk.) And that’s just process and artifacts. Social relationships were different, too. I’ve never written anything full of slavery before, never dealt with a heroic society without literacy. (That changes later, of course.) So a good writing day can be a good inventing/visualising day but a not-many-words-on-the-page day.
Writing this novel reminds me of writing Ammonite. There’s so much world-building that in order to really visualise it, I need, on some level to spend my days there. This means I can’t work for two hours then do something else, like go out for lunch and see a movie. This kind of imaginitive work requires immersion. I can’t make phone calls, do interviews, do a reading & signing, go to the neurologist and discuss my treatment at length, because that pops me out of the world, and it takes a while to get back. More and more I wish I could divide my life into chunks: two months on an island without a phone and no ferry, two weeks downtown going to all the fab new restaurants, seeing the films; two months on the island. I hesitate to tell people this, mostly, because it sounds so…self-indulgent and artsy. But it really is becoming more and more necessary for me to become a complete hermit for days at a time.
I can’t do publicity for a project while I’m living in the seventh century. I don’t want to. And, besides, the kind of on-my-own publicity I can do for a book without the full support of a publisher, is, frankly, close to meaningless.
By ‘full support’ I mean actual support: put galleys in the white box, send posters to bookstores, pay for co-op and display, have reps actually fucking talk about the book to their clients (make sure the reps know the fucking book exists), give me a publicist who has been out of school for more than a year and who has contacts, ideas, and authority.
Oh, I could go on. But mainly I want to open a conversation. How are we going to make this work? How can writers write good stuff–the kind of fiction that is art, not a once-a-year commodity– get that stuff into readers’ hands, and have a life? It’s a puzzle. Ideas on a postcard to…
Enough is enough. Brava, Nicola. These business people are now thinking how writers must be celebrities or rock stars. No. All the things you have mentioned, the external work, the hustling have nothing to do with writing.>You are brave and strong and a writer. Create your world. It will find a way to us. This is enough.
I like to think it’s enough. But as I’ve said < HREF="http://aqueductpress.blogspot.com/2007/07/conversation-with-nicola-griffith-part.html" REL="nofollow">before<>, the writers’ ecosystem is shrinking. I don’t know how much longer we’ll be able to do this and earn enough to live.
Write.
I like what Susie Bright has implemented on her blog: < HREF="http://susiebright.blogs.com/susie_brights_journal_/how-to-support-susies-blo.html" REL="nofollow">a PayPal subscription<> that allows readers to support her work on a monthly or yearly basis. It’s only $5 dollars a month, which is < HREF="http://susiebright.blogs.com/susie_brights_journal_/2008/05/dear-loved-ones.html" REL="nofollow">“the equivalent of a cup of coffee and a cookie”<>. Many of us would love to take you out for coffee at least that often, and would gladly jump at the opportunity to do that virtually by “subscribing” to your blog or website. Especially if $5 or $10 a month translates into more books by you on our shelves.>>Another thought is trying out alternative distribution channels. I noticed some of your novels are already available as eBooks. < HREF="http://www.audible.com" REL="nofollow">Audible<> works amazingly well as far as audiobooks go. I have a subscription there that gives me 2 credits per month, which means I get at least 2 audiobooks every 30 days. My wife has the 1-credit subscription and usually trades it for radio programs. Audible has also been producing some exclusives in the SciFi, Mystery and Comedy genres with great success. I don’t know this for a fact, but I’ve heard that the revenue-split for on-demand distribution such as ebooks and audiobooks is more favorable to the authors than the traditional print industry.
miele, yes, I’ll write :)>>karina, I’m watching all the new models with interest. None of them are quite there yet, but cutting the middlebod is probably the way to go. The two most important people in the literary equation are the writer and the reader. The rest is fiddly bits. It would give me a vast deal of satisfaction to cut it out.
Dear Nazgul…>>Whoa…I have no comment to your post that would be of any significance. It is strong-like you.>> In my 6th decade of life I wish that about three ago I would have spit in the wind.>>No matter what you write or what form it takes, I will find it and read it. THAT you can count on. :)
Trent Reznor < HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trent_Reznor#Criticisms_of_the_music_industry" REL="nofollow">has cut<> the middle man. Stephen King could, if he wanted to. And Neil Gaiman (< HREF="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/free%20book" REL="nofollow">who gave away a free eBook<> for a month and sales for that title increased by 300%). But they’re all mainstream, so they can afford failing to reach those who buy exclusively from bookstores.>>Perhaps you could start a list where your faithful readers could sign up and “pledge” to acquire the next novel, essay or short story collection you release directly from you. Or better yet, host a poll to find out how many of us already buy ebooks, if we’d be comfortable purchasing an electronic version directly from your website, etc. If some of us can’t let go of hard copies, would we be willing to pre-order them from your site so you could get an estimate of how many to press, along with the funds to do so? This is just a bit of brainstorming by the reptilian marketer of my past life… It certainly can be done, it’s only a matter of working out the logistics.
Great quote. Interesting that even back then she was still thinking about some similar issues.>>For me these are Big Questions. How to do/produce something I love, support myself in the manner I would like to be accustomed to, and have a Life. So far I haven’t come up with an answer. I tried producing work for “market demand”, but that didn’t work for me. For myself, I’ve pretty much figured out that I have to create multiple sources of income. What I haven’t worked out is arranging the time to do it all.>>I read a book, a best-seller (ok, skimmed) last year about how to make a lot of money as an entrepreneur, maintain a 4 hour work week, outsource most of the details, and spend the rest of the time living the good life. Apparently, some people manage to do that. I keep thinking I should be smart enough to solve these money details.>>You are right of course; doing all of that stuff is impossible. 10% seems ridiculous – especially given that they don’t do their part for their share.>>A lot of the old business models don’t work anymore. Some good alternatives will sort out, hopefully sooner rather than later. >>Maybe the electronic book will take hold and Apple will design one that doesn’t have the proprietary restrictions that the Kindle does. Hire a freelance editor and a marketing team that works mostly on commission and sell downloads. >>I heard somewhere that there’s big money in screenplays.>>But I know it’s not just the money. If money were no issue, you would still need to write, and to have your words read, right? Still need that marketing team. People can’t read what they don’t know about. >>I wish I had The Answer. All I know is, the having a life part has got to be my priority. Keep forgetting that.>>And hey, I for one am very glad that you have been accessible. I have to believe that you and Kelley will be able to keep living the writing life.
jennifer, yes, lots o’ money in screenplays, but it’s about as similar to writing novels as novels are to writing songs. I think I could do it (it’s been suggested to me often enough) but it’s not where my heart lives.>>linda, thanks. I do count on it.>>karina, yep. Gotta get famous before you can do that kind of thing. But I know there’s a way. I’ll just keep mulling it while I write Hild.
How did one make money in the 7th century? Their entertainment came what, once or twice a year? I grew up on a farm and until I hit college I really did think an alarm clock sounded a cockledooodleloo. I also grew up expecting my neighbors to help raise the roof. So Karina’s suggestion seems spot on. Monetize your site to accept donations, you’ll be surprised. Add an ad books you like as an Amazon associate, put in ad sense if you dare, ’cause sometimes their ads don’t always match your ethics or morals. Use the speed and power of the net. I even have a link that might help in this regard.
Hello all–I really like Karina’s idea about monthly subscriptions, pay per view… I do all I can to support authors, for some time that has been checking out books from the library since I can’t afford to buy them, maybe libraries purchase more books that way??? Another difficulty is that many writers are introverted/shy people–constitutienly opposed to publicity type activities. I am glad you have kept on, Nicola.
rhbee, fjasmine, I dunno, the idea of monetising the site seems…tacky. I have to figure out where the line lies between art and commerce.>>As for the seventh century, in large parts of the world, there was no money…